Mr. Asbosh to Mr. Seivard
Sir :In connection with my report, No. 17, last series, I have the honor to inform you that, since then, no change of any importance has taken place with regard to the Paraguayan war. However, Admiral Ignacio, the successor of Viscount Tamandare, is actively engaged preparing to resume operations.
In anticipation of this, a naval reconnoissance was resolved upon. The four iron-clads, Bahia, Tamandaré, Barroso, and Colombo, ascended the river at dawn of the 5th instant, and opened fire on Curupaiti, whilst the Brazilian admiral himself, on board the Mage, attempted to enter Lake Piris with the gunboats Araguay and Iguatemy and the floating batteries Coimbra and Mercedes, but was baffled in his attempt, owing to obstacles in the mouth of Lake Piris.
The Paraguayans were at first withholding their fire, evidently awaiting for the evening’s approach, but then they opened on both the fleet and the Brazilian land batteries, so effectually that Admiral Ignacio was compelled to signal his vessels to haul off and return to their previous anchorage.
One of the finest river steamers, the Eponina, used as a Brazilian floating hospital at Curuzu, was completely destroyed by fire. She had on board over 200 sick soldiers, just embarked for Corrientes, of which about 30 perished.
The much hoped for balloon, intended for reconnoitring Lopez’s position, was burnt in the allied camp, and it is announced that its unfortunate constructor, a Frenchman, has been tried as a Paraguayan spy and convicted and sentenced to be shot. It appears that he passed from Paraguay to Rio, and contracted for £3,000 to make his balloon and reconnoitre the enemy’s camp; [Page 118] but the charge against him in reality is that he conspired to blow up the whole allied park of artillery, ammunition, &c., &c.
The land forces under General Mitre, whose health is improving, are still intheir encampment at Tuyuti, and nightly skirmishes occur, in which both parties lose more or less men.
The sanitary condition of the allied troops continues to be bad, owing to the excessive heat and drought, and their losses by sickness, as well as by desertion, are considerable.
Meanwhile, recruits are continually arriving from Brazil, and General Osorioalso is stated to be ready to leave Rio Grande with his new reserve for Candelaria, on the Parana.
In the Argentine Republic, however, recruiting, at no time easy, is becoming daily more difficult; only two small contingents from the interior have arrived lately in Rosario, on their way to the seat of war, barely amounting to 500 men altogether, and of these a portion mutinied and decamped, after sacking the police barracks of its arms.
In Montevideo the recruiting by force does not prove more efficacious, as all natives, liable to military service, try to escape; but many of the poor Paraguayan prisoners, taken at the surrender of Uruguayana more than a year ago, and who had been set at liberty on parole, are now laid hold of and obliged toswell the ranks of the allied army.
Besides, convicted criminals have, in all the countries that are parties to the “triple alliance,” a fair chance of fighting for humanity. According to the Anglo-Brazilian Times and other Rio Janeiro papers, again 793 Brazilian convicts were released from prison, on the Fernando Noronha island, and enrolled in the army, to civilize Paraguay.
It is currently reported that Marquis de Caxias boasts he will be back in Rio de Janeiro next May, to give an account to his Emperor of the subjugation of Paraguay. I have not much faith in his military genius, neither do I expectI that he will surpass Polidoro in vigor and dash; but it is beyond doubt that Brazil, with its ample means, can hold out longer than Paraguay, small as it is, comparatively, and isolated from all external resources; and that the latter, if I not saved by the mediation of the United States, will fall through exhaustion. The anticipation given in my report above alluded to, as well as in a subsequent one, No. 4, that in the La Plata republics a convulsive crisis was imminent, and that General Paunero would have to contend, in the provinces of Cuyo, with a force superior in number to his own, were correct. The Men-doza revolution is spreading with fearful rapidity.
The federal party, availing itself of the manifest discontent that is prevalent in the interior provinces against the Paraguayan war—a war as inglorious for the future as it is barren of results in the present—has boldly raised the standard of a reactionary movement. The men who headed the revolt at first declared that their object was solely to change the local authorities, but they have now thrown off the mask, and openly proclaim their intention to overthrow the present national government, and their acts show that they are in earnest.
At the beginning of this month Don Carlos Juan Rodriguez, the revolutionary governor of Mendoza, with Golonel Videla, at the head of 2,000 men, invaded the neighboring province of San Juan, and on the 5th instant met, near the town of San Juan, at a place called Pocito, the united forces of the provinces of San Juan and Rioja, 1,500 strong, commanded by Colonel Campos, governor of the latter province, and, after exchanging a few shots, the majority of Campos’ men passed over to the federals, and the governor himself, abandoning all his artillery, ammunition, &c., barely escaped with a few of his followers, and only, after an exhausting march of five days, succeeded in reaching General Paune-ro’s force, at San Luis. Meanwhile, the revolutionary army made its triunephant [Page 119] entry into San Juan, and Governor Rojo, having already fled, also in the direction of San Luis, Don Ignacio Flores, a wealthy federalist, was appointed governor.
Rumors are current of a reactionary movement having also taken place in the northern province of Tucuman, accompanied by much effusion of blood. To meet the occasion, the national government has published two decrees, copies of which I beg herewith to enclose, marked A, the first proclaiming rebels and traitors to the nation all who had taken part and should aid or abet the revolution begun in Mendoza on the 9th November, ultimo, and the second calling out the national guard of the City of Buenos Ayres, and ordering their presenting themselves at their respective headquarters within three days from the publication of the decree, under penalty of being treated as deserters. In the same enclosure, A, you will please find, also, a circular of the national government to the provincial governors, calling upon them to co-operate in the suppression of the rebellion with all the means at their disposal. Simultaneously the editors of three local opposition papers, La Palebra de Mayo, Union Americana, and Republica (evening paper,) have been arrested and sent prisoners on board the guard-ship in the outer roads, and yesterday the above-named papers were suppressed by order of the national government. * * * * * Several other arrests have also been made of persons of standing and undoubted patriotism, but known to belong to the federal party, and whose disaffection to the present government and hatred of Brazil was public and notorious. No charge whatever has been brought against any of those arrested, and only the fact that the whole republic was declared by congress (although in violaion of the constitution) in a state of siege, at the commencement of the Paraguayan war, can somewhat palliate this otherwise arbitrary proceeding.
It is authoritatively announced that President Mitre’s own brother, General Emilio Mitre, will be at once sent from the army at Tuyuti with from 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers of the line, to co-operate with General Paunero in restoring order in the interior. This will reduce the Argentine contingent to an insignificant force, and, under these circumstances, it would seem that the wisest course the Argentine government could follow would be to accept at once the proffered, and by the public much longed for, mediation of the United States.
* * * I beg to forward extracts from the daily papers of Buenos Ayres, urging not only the advisability but the pressing necessity of making peace through the mediation of the United States, and beg more particularly to call your attention to extract No. 4, from the Republica (morning paper) of 17th instant, and No. 5, from the Pueblo of to-day. In fact, all the people of the Argentine Confederation, except those who supply the wants of the army, earnestly wish for peace with Paraguay.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
P. S., January 24.—To-day’s Pueblo * * * says that three steam transports with Brazilian troops, destined for the array, have been detained yesterday in Montevideo, with orders to disembark. This, in connection with the simultaneous arrival in this city of the Brazilian minister extraordinary, Dr. F. Octaviano, I consider as a precautionary measure on the part of Brazil for a safer control over the events that may arise out of the present critical state of political affairs here.